4804.) 
@ccupations with fuch ardour, was, that 
he totally loft the relith for them. Long 
before the termin?tion of his career, while 
in the full poffeffion of his mental and 
corporeal energies, M. Brunck could not 
endure to hear a word fpoken concerning 
Greek ; he tock no intereft in the difco- 
very. of a manufcript of Ariftophanes 
which confirmed many of his boldeit con- 
jeStures. My father could never induce 
him to read a very beautiful eulogy, com- 
poted for him by a learned German pro- 
feffor, at a time when a falfe report of his 
@eath had been propagated in that coun- 
From the Port-falio of a Man of Letters. 
43 
try. I read nothing but Trave's (faid 
he to me, at that period) to presare myfelf 
for that journey, which I fhall, doubtle's, 
foon undertake.’ 
Till the termination of his life; Ma 
Brunck conttituted the delioht of a fele& 
fociety ; we frequently compared him to 
the hoary Teian ‘bard, whofe produ‘tions 
he had fo juftly appreciated. His ficure, 
at the fame time, handfome, agreeable, 
and veverahle, will be for ever imprefled 
upon my imagination; and his excellent 
qualities wall be eternally prefent to my 
heart. 
Extradis from the Port-folto of a Man of Letters, 
Cr Tt Ir 
tats ANTHONY WOOD. | 
PT SHE journalits of Trevoux, in the 
S fixty-firtt article, p. 843 of their 
dViemoirs for May, 1799, in their abridg- 
ment of Bifhop Nicholion’s Hiftorical Li- 
brary, fay—‘‘ Mr. Wood a écrit la Vie 
de tous les Scavans élévez dans les Uni- 
verfités d’Angleterre (il faudroit dire 
feulement ceux d’Oxiord) depuis 1500. 
Son Ouvrage, gui eft intitulé, Athene 
Oxonienfes, elt trés éftimé: il fournit des 
Mémoires excellentes pour I’Hiftcire des 
eux derniers Siécles. MM. Nicho!fon 
n’ofe dire abfolument que Monfieur Wood 
fut Catholique: mais il affure qu'il pan- 
ghoit beaucoup de ce cdte la.” 
SIR JOHN DAVIES. 
He was attorney general of [reland, 
anda very voluminous writer on the affairs: 
ofthat kingdom. His Difcoverie of the 
rue Caufes why Ireland was never en- 
tirely fubdued to ihe Crown of England 
*till the Beginning of his Majefly’s reigz. 
London, 1612, 4to. is well known, He 
was alfoa poet and an antiquarian. The 
full-length picture of a man in a brown 
night gown, in the late Mr. Soame Je- 
nyns’s Hall, at Botefham, in Cambridge- 
Shire, with a {croll in one hand, on which 
is written, Nofce teipfum, has been taken 
¢or a portrait of him. 
SIR JOHN ELLIOT. 
He was the author of a treatife, inti. 
led, “* The Monarchie of Man; a Trea- 
tife, Philofophical and. Moral, wherein 
fome Quettions of the Politics are ob- 
Vioufly difcuffed ; by Sir John Ellior, Knt. 
Prifoner in the Tower.’” A copy of it 
4s in the Harleian Library. Mr. Wanley 
tells us, that ‘ this gentleman, not hav- 
ing his ambitious demands gratified to the 
full, turned to be a molt bitter and im- 
Blacable enemy to his fovercigan King 
\ 
Charles I. againft whom this worly 
feems to be moft efpecially written. This 
Sir Jobn Elliot, as I have heard, in cun- 
federacy with Sir Henry Vane, Mr. Hamp 
den, Mr. Pym, and another, out of pris 
vate malice and revenge, did contrive the - 
‘civil war, before the calling of that long 
Parliament ; and, by the concurrence af 
men as defperately wicked as themfelves, 
gained their point.”” 
CHARACTER of the ENGLISH NATION, 
by OXENSTIERN, Chancellor of SWEDE! @ 
The chara&ter drawn by this great 
ftatefman is fo juft and difcriminating, 
that it richly deferves a piace in the 
port-folio of every man of letters. 
“England (fays he) is moft truly the 
queen of iflands, the emprefs and the ar- 
fenal of Neptune. It is at the fame time 
the Peru of Europe, the kingdom of Bac. 
chus, the {chool of Epicurus, the acadea 
my of Venus, the country of Mars, tha 
refidence of Minerva, the fupport of Hole 
land, the fcaurge of France, the purgatory 
of the partifans of flavery, and the para- 
dife of the lovers of liberty. The females 
are beautiful; but their beauty is accom- 
panied with a je xe feai quoi de fade« 
Bravery is natural to the men; but it is 
carried to an excefs which approaches to 
ferocity. Their talents for wit are great, 
perhaps greater than in any other coun- 
try; but thefe produce a certain degree of 
pre(umption which confiderably diminifhes 
the merit. Here one may truly fay, that 
Fortune diftributes her favours with a 
liberal hand; but thefe iflanders are igno- 
rant of the art of ufing them as well 
for others as themfelves. Courtezans, 
and the gratification of the palate, are the 
objeéts of their liberality, Their lan- 
guage is aftrange mixture of all the others 
which are {poken.in Eurepe; but it has 
Seca the 
